Word-Contractions And Prepositions In Brazilian Portuguese

Word-Contractions And Prepositions In Brazilian Portuguese

The best place to start when discussing word-contractions in Portuguese is to re-define them first in English. A contraction word is what happens when we join two words together. For example, “is not,” becomes, “isn’t,” “can not,” becomes, “can’t,” and so on.

Portuguese also does this with many words, and we are going to discuss them now. The major difference between Portuguese and English contractions is that Portuguese does not utilize an apostrophe in order to join words together like English does.

Portuguese makes use of prepositions to make contractions.

So, let’s first look at what prepositions exist in Portuguese and then revisit the topic of contractions afterward and see how it all comes together… literally!

Prepositions In English	Prepositions In Portuguese
Below	Abaixo
Above	Acima
Beyond	Além
In addition to	Além de
Before	Antes
Prior to	Antes de
Beside	Ao lado de
Despite	Apesar de
Around	Aproximadamente
That	Aquele, aquela
Those	Aqueles, aquelas
Until	Até
Behind	Atrás
Across	Através de
Through	Através
As well as	Bem como
With	Com
As	Como
According to	Conforme
Against	Contra
From	De
Of	De
Inside	Dentro
Within	Dentro de
After	Depois
Since	Desde
Due to	Devido a
Unlike	Diferente de
Far from	Distante, longe de
During	Durante
At	Em
In	Em
Into	Em
On	Em
On top of	Em cima de
Toward	Em direção a
On behalf of	Em nome de
Around	Em torno de
Instead of	Em vez de
Among	Entre
Between	Entre
This	Este, esta
These	Estes, estas
Except	Exceto
Except for	Exceto
Out	Fora
Outside	Fora de
Outside of	Fora de
Plus	Mais
But	Mas
In front of	Na frente de
Opposite	Oposto
For	Para
To	Para
Down	Para baixo
Up	Para cima
Near	Perto
Near to	Perto de
By	Por
Per	Por
Because of	Por causa de
Next	Próximo
Close to	Próximo a
Next to	Próximo de
Than	Que
Without	Sem
Under	Sob
About	Sobre
Over	Sobre
As far as	Tanto quanto

Though there are a great many prepositions in Portuguese, as you can see from the table, we are only going to focus on a few of them when it comes to making contractions.

In order to do this, we use the definite and indefinite articles, “a, o, as, os, um, uma, uns, umas,” certain demonstratives, some specific pronouns and also a few adverbs and combine them with particular prepositions, “em, de, para, por, a,” to create whole new words; contraction words.

Put simply:
Preposition + definite article = Contraction word.
Preposition + indefinite article = Contraction word.
Preposition + demonstrative = Contraction word.
Preposition + pronoun = Contraction word.
Preposition + adverb = Contraction word.


This is best demonstrated with examples:

Preposition	Article	Contraction word	English Translation
Em +	o =	No	In the/on the (masculine singular)
Em +	a =	Na	In the/on the (feminine singular)
Em +	os =	Nos	In the/on the (masculine plural)
Em +	as =	Nas	In the/on the (Feminine plural)
Em +	um =	Num	In a/on a (masculine singular)
Em +	uma =	Numa	In a/on a (feminine singular)
Em +	uns =	Nuns	In some/on some (masculine plural)
Em +	umas =	numas	In some/on some (feminine plural)

Preposition	Article	Contraction word	English Translation
De +	o =	Do	Of the/from the (masculine singular)
De +	a =	Da	Of the/from the (feminine singular)
De +	os =	Dos	Of the/from the (masculine plural)
De +	As =	Das	Of the/from the (feminine plural)

Preposition	Article	Contraction word	English Translation
Para +	o =	Pro	To the/For the (masculine singular)
Para +	a =	Pra	To the/For the (feminine singular)
Para +	os =	Pros	To the/For the (masculine plural)
Para +	As =	Pras	To the/For the (feminine plural)

Preposition	Article	Contraction word	English Translation
Por +	o =	Pelo	For/Around/Through/By the (Masculine singular)
Por +	a =	Pela	For/Around/Through/By the (feminine singular)
Por +	os =	Pelos	For/Around/Through/By the (Masculine plural)
Por +	As =	Pelas	For/Around/Through/By the (feminine plural)

Preposition	Article	Contraction word	English Translation
A +	o =	Ao	To the (Masculine singular)
A +	a =	À	To the (feminine singular)
A +	os =	Aos	To the (Masculine plural)
A +	As =	Às	To the (feminine  plural)

Preposition	Demonstrative	Contraction word	English Translation
De +	este =	Deste	Of this/from this (Masculine singular)
De +	esta =	Desta	Of this/from this (feminine singular)
De +	esse =	Desse	Of that/from that (Masculine singular)
De +	essa =	Dessa	Of that/from that (feminine singular)
De +	estes =	Destes	Of this/from this (Masculine plural)
De +	estas =	Destas	Of this/from this (feminine plural)
De +	esses =	Desses	Of that/from that (Masculine plural)
De +	essas =	Dessas	Of that/from that (feminine plural)
De +	aquele	Daquele	Of that/from that (Masculine singular)
De +	aquela	Daquela	Of that/from that (feminine singular)
De +	aqueles	Daqueles	Of those/from those (masculine plural)
De +	aquelas	Daquelas	Of those/from those (feminine plural)
De +	aquilo	Daquilo	Of it/from it (neutral gender)
De +	isto	Disto	Of it/from it (neutral gender)
De +	isso	Disso	Of that/from that (neutral gender)

Preposition	Demonstrative	Contraction word	English Translation
Em +	este =	Neste	In this (Masculine singular)
Em +	esta =	Nesta	In this (feminine singular)
Em +	esse =	Nesse	In that (Masculine singular)
Em +	essa =	Nessa	In that (feminine singular)
Em +	estes =	Nestes	In these (Masculine plural)
Em +	estas =	Nestas	In these (feminine plural)
Em +	esses =	Nesses	In those (Masculine plural)
Em +	essas =	Nessas	In those (feminine plural)
Em +	aquele =	Naquele	In that (Masculine singular)
Em +	aquela =	Naquela	In that (feminine singular)
Em +	aqueles =	Naqueles	In those (masculine plural)
Em +	aquelas =	Naquelas	In those (feminine plural)
Em +	aquilo =	Naquilo	In it (neutral gender)
Em +	isto =	Nisto	In this (neutral gender)
Em +	isso =	Nisso	In that (neutral gender)

Preposition	Pronoun	Contraction word	English Translation
Em +	ele =	Nele	In him/In it (masculine singular)
Em +	ela =	Nela	In her/In it (feminine singular)
Em +	eles =	Neles	In them (masculine plural)
Em +	elas=	Nelas	In them (feminine plural)
Com +	mim	Comigo	With me (neutral gender)
Com +	ti	Contigo	With you (neutral gender)
Com +	si	Consigo	With them (neutral gender)
Com +	nós	Connosco	With us (neutral gender)

Preposition	Adverb	Contraction word	English Translation
De +	aqui =	Daqui	Of here/From here
De +	aí =	Daí	Of there/ from there
De +	ali =	Dali	Of there/ from there
De +	onde	Donde	Of where/ from where
A +	onde	Aonde	To where

There is plenty more to be said about contractions when we get into verb conjugations. But for now, all I ask is that you look over these tables again. Really study them with attention and take the time to notice the congruencies among each contraction. You will start to see after a bit that it is only natural that these contractions should exist. At least for the vast majority of them.

For example, if you were to say, out loud, “his horse is thirsty,” in Portuguese which is, “o cavalo dele está com sede,” and you did not say, “dele,” but rather left it as, “de ele,” you would have an awkward space in between the words; “de – ele.” It is more natural to let the words flow together to become one resounding word, “dele.”

Which, as I’m sure you know, is why contractions developed in the first place, speech.

Keep this in mind as you study the tables and I promise it will all start to make sense as you go along.

There are a couple more things I want to share with you before we conclude this article. All over Brazil you will hear a particular expression all the time. Brazilians will throw the word, “né,” on the end of a ton of their sentences. Or sometimes just use it all by itself.

So, what does it mean?

Well, “né,” is a contraction for the two words, “não,” and, “é.”
If we were to translate it literally, it would mean, “No it is.”
But that’s not coherent.
It’s, essentially the English equivalent of saying, “right?” or, “isn’t it?”

For example, a Brazilian might say to you, “que lindo dia, né?” Which means, “what a beautiful day, right?” or, “what a beautiful day, isn’t it?”

You will hear this word, “né,” over and over again, so tuck this lesson in a safe place in your mind for now. It will be useful to you sooner than you think.

Another expression you will hear constantly is, “ah tá.”

This is the Brazilian way of saying things like, “oh I see,” “ah, got it,” or, “ok, sure.”

Pretty much any time that someone explains something to you, you can respond with, “ah tá.” This is a very colloquial way of saying, “I understand.”

Obviously, “ah tá,” is not a contraction word, just a little tip I think is very useful to know!

If you are looking for the best place to start with learning Brazilian Portuguese, then I have no higher recommendation than to head on over to Rocket Languages Portuguese to get started.

They have all the tools you need to fast track your learning journey and get you speaking like a native in record time!

Good luck my friend, e até a próxima!